Methods of making paper tissue, towel, and the like are well known, including various features such as Yankee drying, throughdrying, fabric creping, dry creping, wet creping and so forth. Conventional wet pressing processes have certain advantages over conventional through-air drying processes including: (1) lower energy costs associated with the mechanical removal of water rather than transpiration drying with hot air; and (2) higher production speeds which are more readily achieved with processes which utilize wet pressing to form a web. On the other hand, through-air drying processing has been widely adopted for new capital investment, particularly for the production of soft, bulky, premium quality tissue and towel products.
Fabric creping has been employed in connection with papermaking processes which include mechanical or compactive dewatering of the paper web as a means to influence product properties. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,689,119 and 4,551,199 of Weldon; 4,849,054 and 4,834,838 of Klowak; and 6,287,426 of Edwards et al. Operation of fabric creping processes has been hampered by the difficulty of effectively transferring a web of high or intermediate consistency to a dryer. Note also U.S. Pat. No. 6,350,349 to Hermans et al. which discloses wet transfer of a web from a rotating transfer surface to a fabric. Further patents relating to fabric creping more generally include the following: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,834,838; 4,482,429 4,445,638 as well as 4,440,597 to Wells et al.
In connection with papermaking processes, fabric molding has also been employed as a means to provide texture and bulk. In this respect, there is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 6,610,173 to Lindsay et al. a method for imprinting a paper web during a wet pressing event which results in asymmetrical protrusions corresponding to the deflection conduits of a deflection member. The '173 patent reports that a differential velocity transfer during a pressing event serves to improve the molding and imprinting of a web with a deflection member. The tissue webs produced are reported as having particular sets of physical and geometrical properties, such as a pattern densified network and a repeating pattern of protrusions having asymmetrical structures. With respect to wet-molding of a web using textured fabrics, see, also, the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,017,417 and 5,672,248 both to Wendt et al.; 5,505,818 and 5,510,002 to Hermans et al. and 4,637,859 to Trokhan. With respect to the use of fabrics used to impart texture to a mostly dry sheet, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,585,855 to Drew et al., as well as United States Publication No. US 2003/0000664 A1.
Throughdried, creped products are disclosed in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 3,994,771 to Morgan, Jr. et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,737 to Morton; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,480 to Trokhan. The processes described in these patents comprise, very generally, forming a web on a foraminous support, thermally pre-drying the web, applying the web to a Yankee dryer with a nip defined, in part, by an impression fabric, and creping the product from the Yankee dryer. A relatively permeable web is typically required, making it difficult to employ recycle furnish at levels which may be desired. Transfer to the Yankee typically takes place at web consistencies of from about 60% to about 70%; although in some processes the transfer occurs at much higher consistencies, sometimes even approaching air-dry.
As noted in the above, throughdried products tend to exhibit enhanced bulk and softness; however, thermal dewatering with hot air tends to be energy intensive. Wet-press operations wherein the webs are mechanically dewatered are preferable from an energy perspective and are more readily applied to furnishes containing recycle fiber which tends to form webs with less permeability than virgin fiber. Many improvements relate to increasing the bulk and absorbency of compactively dewatered products which are typically dewatered, in part, with a papermaking felt.
Despite advances in the art, previously known wet press processes have not produced the highly absorbent webs with preferred physical properties especially elevated CD stretch at relatively low MD/CD tensile ratios as are sought after for use in premium tissue and towel products.
In accordance with the present invention, the absorbency, bulk and stretch of a wet-pressed web can be vastly improved by wet fabric creping a web and rearranging the fiber on a creping fabric, while preserving the high speed, thermal efficiency, and furnish tolerance to recycle fiber of conventional wet press processes